Forget the image of the the kid painfully trudging her solitary path to piano lessons. Or the boy daydreaming of glory on the baseball diamond while his teacher raps the rhythm with her ruler. This is a new millennium and The Lake Shore Music Studio has created a fusion of fun group activities with high technology to create a new tradition in piano lessons.

The Lake Shore Music Studio, located at 1460 N. Sandburg Terrace, is now accepting enrollments for its new term. The Studio specializes in piano lessons for all ages, including Music for Moppets for 4 and 5 year olds and Kinder-Keyboard for 6 and 7 year olds.

"Our lessons are different than the traditional lessons most people grew up with," says Julie Lovison, Director. "First of all, our students meet in small groups, rather than individually. This makes a built in support team of friends, as well as enabling us to schedule longer lessons, which results in more contact time between student and teacher. Our students enjoy playing their latest accomplishments for each other and offering suggestions kid to kid as well as receiving pats on the back from each other and they always have built in duet partners. Because we have more contact time, we can include time for improvising and composing and playing music games which help take the drudgery out of the drill work like learning note names, scales, etc. There are so many more ideas shared in a group, there is always a buoyant energy level in our classes and it's really fun for the teacher as well."

"Secondly, we believe it's important for students of any level to understand the music they are playing, not simply play songs by rote, so we cover a lot of music theory in our lessons. While Lake Shore Music Studio students learn to play Bach Minuets beautifully, they also learn how to transpose them to other keys, add a boogie woogie or Mozart style accompaniment, or compose a Minuet of their own. We provide our students with the knowledge and encouragement they need to be creative thoughtful musicians."

"By understanding the patterns and structures of music, students find they can learn pieces more quickly, retain them longer, and interpret them more sensitively. Our goal is to teach our students useful concepts about music that will keep them involved with music for a lifetime."

Lake Shore Music Studio students have been motivated by the addition of a MIDI compatible computer lab. "Students are so comfortable working with computers through their experiences at school and home," Mrs. Lovison says,"now they can enjoy learning how to use them for music applications. With our new MIDI computer system we are able to record songs by playing them on a piano keyboard which enters the music into the memory of the computer using a sequencer program, then with the click of a mouse button can change the instrument sound to any one of 128 choices. Imagine Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on a harpsicord or a flute. Children love to play Disney hits like Beauty and the Beast, but are often disappointed that they don't sound like the recording. Because we have all the glamorous, synthesized sounds on our computer, now they can make the sounds themselves that they are hoping to hear. "

"Another day, we might orchestrate a song, such as the popular Pachelbel's Canon, by adding more instrumental sounds using our MIDI keyboard, then print out the resulting music on our computer. Once they start on the computer, our students never want to leave at the end of their lesson," says Mrs. Lovison.

We also have four acoustic pianos. "I want our students to have a love of the traditional piano sound, and an ability to play with sensitivity, beauty and skill the great body of classical works. This is our tradition and my love as well." "But," she continues, "this is the dawn of the 21st century, and it's time we educate students in the skills they will need to make music in the future as well."

Julie Lovison, a Chicago native, founded The Lake Shore Music Studio in 1980 based on the philosophy and teaching methods of Dr. Robert Pace, with whom she studied in New York, at Teachers College, Columbia University. She was joined by associate Edith Gwinn-Smith a graduate of Alabama A & M University in 1991.

For information on lessons or training programs in the Pace teaching method, call Julie Lovison, The Lake Shore Music Studio, 312-335-8426. or email here.